The Haas Value Strategy has been a top performer since its inception about 6 years ago, beating by about five percentage points per year. It’s fair to say that, at most, a handful of managers have matched its performance. In addition, virtually all managers would consider its performance “highly successful”. But on a day to Read more about What Good Performance Really Looks Like[…]
Some brokers are encouraging their clients to sell Call Options on stocks they own (see here for an explanation of options). The brokers argue that if the stock doesn’t go up you’ll have extra income from selling the option (true) and that if the stock does go up (and the option is exercised) you’ll still Read more about Are Stock Options a “Free Lunch”?[…]
As I write this, the market is down over 2% on the day with the Dow shedding more than 350 points. No doubt, this will be a topic of all evening newscasts. It’s important to keep things in perspective. We’ve had a great run since the bottom of the market in the spring of 2009. Read more about #4, and Counting[…]
Many investors spend too much time thinking about what stocks to buy and if it’s a good time to be in the market. They ignore, at their peril, the small factors that add up over time. It’s understandable. An annual fee of 1% seems trivial when compared to a stock that may double over a Read more about Sweat The Small Stuff[…]
A friend recently asked me: “Why invest in foreign markets, they haven’t done anything over the last 5 years?” My first response was to point out that the past 5 years in not predictive of the subsequent 5 years for any investment. In other words, the fact that they haven’t done well does not mean Read more about The Benefits of Investing in Foreign Markets[…]
If you’re like most investors you’re happy to open your account statement and see that your investments have appreciated in value since the last statement. When the market gets rough you understand that stocks lose money sometimes. But how much your investments appreciate, or decline, is critical over the long term. The only way to Read more about How Are Your Investments Doing? No, Really?[…]
A recent ad from American Funds caught my attention. It claimed a “superior long-term track record” with 91% of equity funds beating their Lipper peer indexes in a 10 year period. This is fantastic! In a recent article titled “86% of investment managers stunk in 2014”, CNN Money reported that 82% of active fund managers failed Read more about How To Say You’re Wining When You’re Losing[…]
Investors in growth stocks think they’re pretty good at predicting the future, value investors don’t. To be sure, companies that are growing quickly are worth more (by valuation measures such as price/earnings) than one’s that aren’t. How much extra a growth stock investor is willing to pay depends on how quickly he expects the company Read more about Value Vs. Growth – It’s the Future![…]
One of the biggest mistakes I see novice investors make is buying a stock based on the fact that a company is doing something “special”. This includes introducing a new product, adding a “rock star” manager to its management team, or simply growing quickly. None of these things makes a stock particularly appealing, and that’s Read more about It’s Priced In![…]
The movement of stock prices has been, and will forever be, a bit alarming. It’s not unusual to see a stock up 50% over the course of a year, or down 50%. Recently Weight Watchers stock doubled in a single day after Oprah announced that she was endorsing the company. Although some of this movement Read more about The Rationale Behind Irrational Stock Prices[…]